My work exam­ines processes where human and nat­ural sys­tems inter­act and those that elu­ci­date the func­tion­ing of the Earth sys­tem. Answer­ing pure eco­log­i­cal research ques­tions and solv­ing crit­i­cal envi­ron­men­tal prob­lems through applied work are impor­tant to me. My research pro­gram to date is com­prised of three inter­con­nected themes:

1 | Energy Geog­ra­phy and Devel­op­ment – My energy research is moti­vated by the belief that every human should have access to energy in a man­ner that is sus­tain­able with the Earth sys­tem. I study the inter­sec­tion between energy devel­op­ment and the envi­ron­ment, and par­tic­u­larly how solar energy can be deployed to reduce green­house gas emis­sions, water deficits, and land-​​cover change. I am inter­ested in elu­ci­dat­ing how renew­able energy devel­op­ment can be real­ized at policy-​​relevant timescales to address issues of energy inse­cu­rity, cli­mate change, and global envi­ron­men­tal change.

2 | Global Change in Arid­lands – My global change research is moti­vated by the fact that over one-​​third (41%) of Earth’s ter­res­trial sur­face is arid, semi­arid, or dry-​​subhumid. Together, these water-​​stressed bio­mes sup­port 38% of the global pop­u­la­tion. Arid­lands have been iden­ti­fied as highly vul­ner­a­ble to global change-​​type threats and yet they remain vastly under­stud­ied despite their impor­tance for ecosys­tem ser­vices that humans depend on. I am inter­ested in impacts, mit­i­ga­tion, and pri­or­i­ties of global change-​​type threats on var­i­ous com­po­nents of arid­land ecosystems.

3 | Soil Ecol­ogy and Bio­geo­chem­istry – My soil ecol­ogy research is moti­vated by the fact that soils are the most under­stud­ied com­po­nent of the Earth sys­tem and yet have enor­mous impacts on its func­tion. My research seeks to under­stand the micro­bial ecol­ogy and bio­geo­chem­istry of soils, espe­cially how soil car­bon moves in soils across time and space, and what fac­tors lead to these changes. One such fac­tor includes the role of plants that form sym­bi­otic rela­tion­ships with myc­or­rhizal fungi, which in turn cre­ate vast under­ground net­works of car­bon through­out the soil ecosystem.